Solutions to Anchors Aweigh – 1/4

Puzzle 1 – Classic Battleships [Easy] Anchors Aweigh included 3 classics. The first classic is straightforward and shouldn’t pose any significant problems. All deductions were easy. Almost everything was forced. The Battleship and two submarines were left in the end. These only fit one way at the bottom right quadrant of the grid. Puzzle 2 – Chess Battleships In all Chess Battleships, the deduction usually starts at the King. All four corners of the King must be used by different ships, so you can cross out the four cells that are adjacent to the King. In this particular puzzle, there are two possible locations for the Battleship where every piece can attack it. If you tried the blue location, you will notice that the Knight will not be able to attack 4 ships. So we can be certain that the Battleship has to be at the orange position. In the diagram above, “?” represent cells that will be occupied by a ship. The green cells are attacked by the Knight, and the Bishop attacks the remaining blue cells. Working with long ships, we now locate the 2 cruisers. One cruiser will be near the King, away from the Rook. So the remaining cruiser will have to be looming near the Rook. The next thing to note is that none of the green cells will be attacked by the Rook. This means the cruiser that the Knight attacks will be shared with the King, incidentally there is only one spot for that. The remaining cruiser has to be attacked by three remaining pieces; Queen, Rook and Bishop. Again, only one position that meets all the criteria. At this point, keep tracker of the Rook and Queen’s directions. They must attack only four ships. The Rook has to attack a ship at all sides. The Queen already strikes twice diagonally and twice vertically so there shouldn’t be any ships horizontal to the Queen. You can determine one destroyer right away where it is attacked by the Bishop and King. The remaining corner of the King has to be a submarine. Now the remaining ships shouldn’t be too hard to fiddle in.

Nikoli Hurdles 5 [Live Updates]

[01 Dec] Nikoli Hurdles 5 has started!
Any updates or errata will be mentioned here.

– Password for Puzzle 4 had a minor typo. It is now fixed. Sorry!

[02 Dec] Puzzle 8 has been updated. The original one had multiple solutions. Please reload the page for the new version.

Welcome!

What do crosswords in your newspaper, that numbered 9x9 grid that’s suddenly everywhere, the spot the differences on a cereal box, a chess position from some tournament match, the squiggles you see in common IQ tests and a high school mathematics exam have in common?

Answer: They can all be classified as a “puzzle”.
As a lifelong puzzler, I always find the word “puzzle” to be a bit broad. Everyone has their own definition of a puzzle. I imagine a certain place where all puzzle types gather and made known to everyone. That place would be Somewhere Over the Rainbow.